Core application Volta-2013 is Windows 7/8 compatible and can run in touch-screen or standard mouse/keyboard desktop mode. It can be downloaded free of charge from Intel's AppUp store [1] (published on 11/27/2012). User Manual is available at [2].

Application extension "Jobrica-2013" can also run in Windows 7/8, but its real-time geolocation features are available only in Ultrabooks/Win8; it implements multi-modal User Interface providing Voice messaging via TTS technology. It's corresponding web page utilizes Microsoft Bing mapping technology and search engine, extended with Company's (Infosoft International Inc, NY) proprietary database of more than 200 Job Agencies in the US, mostly in hi-tech area. The application is available free of charge on Intel's AppUp store; (published on 11/29/2012 [8]).

Background

Engineering Calculator VOLTA-2013 for Microsoft Windows ([1,2]) extends the capability and application scope of its predecessor "VOLTA-2011" previously published online [3] and discussed on Codeproject [4].

Original Calculator 'VOLTA-2011' was implemented as HTML5
web application adhering to modern software paradigm of separation
of programming concerns, namely:

Content: HTML5

Presentation: CSS3

Functionality: Javascript/jQuery

Entire project was encapsulated in a single text file of rather small digital footprint (less than 10kB). It did not use any
graphic files, like .jpg or .png, etc. All aesthetic enhancements, like: rounded corners, color gradients, borders and shadows were achieved exclusively via CSS3 styling, thus resulting in that very small application footprint and fast web page load.

Working Demo of Engineering Calculator VOLTA-2011 implemented as HTML5/CSS3/jQuery web application is available online: click on the snapshot image shown below to open fully-functional calculator demo page:

Fig 1: HTML5 web application 'Volta-2011', sample screenshot

Volta-2013

Engineering Calculator Volta-2013 is an updated/revised desktop version of "VOLTA-2011". It's installer was generated using Intel AppUp encapsulator [5], which allows to convert HTML5 web app into Windows desktop installables. Online User Manual [2] covers essential use cases, pertinent to the previous and current models. Following sample screenshots demonstrate various styling options available in Volta-2013, namely: Rounded corners, High/Low contrast, and Light background.

Fig 2: Engineering Calculator Volta-2013 for Win 8 desktop

Fig 3: Calculator Volta-2013 with rounded corner

Fig 4: Calculator Volta-2013 with 'Light' background

Fig 5: Calculator Volta-2013 app icon

Using the code

The code base of existing Calculator VOLTA-2011 has been well documented and discussed online [3,4]. Several options have been added to new version VOLTA-2013, including dynamic styling using jQuery and CSS3 include files; dynamic style selection can be potentially linked to ambient light sensor output. Following example (Listing 1 and 2) demonstrates coding technique of rounded corners toggle On/Off:

Jobrica-2013

Jobrica-2013 is Windows 8 desktop/Ultrabooks application extension using GPS/Geolocation service in order to find Job Agencies in a search area nearby. It implements dedicated web page powered by Microsoft Bing technology [7] and desktop installable app, that obtains geographical coordinates in real-time mode if geo-location service is available/enabled, and also allows manual entry of the search area central point, sending corresponding encoded web-query to the said page (see sample screenshots following):

Sample coding solution: Numeric WPF TextBox

Restricting WPF TextBox entry to just numbers and selected special
characters is not a trivial task. Unlike its counterpart in Win Forms,
which expose KeyCode (accessible as e.KeyCode in, for example, KeyDown
event handle), WPF ones provides only e.Key property, which, if
converted to String, returns, for example, something like "D0", "Back"
or "OemPeriod". Quick workaround was found as shown in the following
Listing 5. Solution allows entering in WPF TextBoxes numbers 0...9 and
special keys: backspace, delete, period and minus sign. Relevant to
mention that it could be extended by adding more 'allowed' cases with ||
operator, and also intercepting the combination of "Shift" + {Key} and arbitrary "copy-pasted" text, but
detailed coverage of this coding technique goes beyond the reasonable
boundaries of this particular article. Just to notice, that even in the
'worst-case' scenario, provided that some invalid characters has been
entered into Textbox, then input validation implemented in "Find Agency" button click event handle will throw exception and notify User of erroneous
input either via TTS (Voice messaging), or standard message box (if TTS feature
is disabled).

Geolocation/GPS

Jobrica-2013 utilizes real-time GPS/Geolocation features available in GPS-equipped Ultrabooks, providing the option to "Find Job Agency" in the search area provided by User either manually, or via real-time geolocation service.

ALS Sensor use-case

Even though the core application VOLTA-2013 is potentially capable of automated style selection, for example switching between High/Low contrast styles based upon data feed from the ambient light sensor (ALS), included in some high-end Ultrabooks: that will require programmatic implementation of what is known in Electrical Engineering as "comparator w/hysteresis", automatically controlling the style selection feature (Listing 4). Upon serious design consideration and partial prototype testing, such automatic control feature was found unnecessary in this type of business applications. Such "irrational exuberance", i.e. artificial overstreatching of the sensors use-case can potentially result in continuous "styles jitter", thus increasing the annoyance/eye-irritation and degrading the overall user experience rather than improving it. Alternatively, the style selection feature was implemented as a simple manual 'single-click' operation.

Using Intel's AppUp encapsulator

Core application VOLTA-2013 has been developed originally as HTML5 web application, utilizing CSS3 (styling) and jQuery (functionality) technology set, and later converted into Windows desktop installable application using Intel's AppUp encapsulator [5].

History

HTML5 web application VOLTA-2011 has been released [3,4]

VOLTA-2011 has been tested on new Apple iPad version (a.k.a. iPad 3) [6].

Engineering Calculator VOLTA-2013 (v. 8.1.2) has been published on Intel's AppUp store [1]

Application extension Jobrica-2013 (v. 8.1.1.) has been published on Intel's AppUp store [8]

My concern is different. Why doing all that? If I can be more straight, I'll ask: why wasting time for that?

Let me translate the message such works send to the potential users (if they even exist): "You leave in the time of Internet governments, video input, hand-writing, speech and face recognition and video conferencing. But when it comes to your trivial engineering calculations, you still leave in 70th, before personal computers, hard drives, big screens and programming. You can have only 1-line screen (actually, showing few digits) and few buttons to be clicked accurately, as you don't see full feedback of what you are writing. You cannot even write a simple expression and see it."

What you offering probably look good, but if a user simply types in the browser input line "3 * (2 + 5)". The result is much better than all your fancy application with buttons. You don't offer the users even that. (Or, even if you do better than I think, it won't change the essence of the things: why doing all that? Just to show "I can do it?" But why showing that? We know that you are a qualified software engineer; why not doing something more useful, or at least not giving this moral harm?)

I don't know, maybe you did not live in time where those "scientific calculators" (I would say, "engineering", "scientific" would be ) were little separate devices, but I did. We hated them, we suffered from them. We could not even dream about having a real computer at home, but we knew what we wanted. The problem of creation of something useful in JavaScript is trivial enough.

You might say "but the users used to those calculators with buttons". Sorry, even though I was the one who had to use them, I never knew one who liked it and really used to it. We hated them, I tell you. We clearly understood how inconvenient they were. Why reviving something that bad?

What people really used to is writing an expression on paper. But you don't offer this natural possibility. Why? What's the use?